North Koreans facts
While investigating facts about North Koreans, I found out little known, but curios details like:
Chinese newspaper cited The Onion naming the North Korean leader as the Sexiest Man Alive without realizing it was a joke
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North Korea is obsessed with Choco Pies from S Korea. There's a black market for them, and factories once used them to pay worker bonuses. In 2014, S Korean activists sent 10K pies to NK with helium balloons. After an injured NK defector crossed the DMZ in 2017, he was given a lifetime supply.
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In my opinion, it is useful to put together a list of the most interesting details from trusted sources that I've come across answering north korea government. Here are 50 of the best facts about North Koreans I managed to collect.
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In 2007, a North Korean cargo vessel was captured by Somali pirates. Its distress signal was responded to by a nearby US destroyer, which provided medical assistance to injured NK sailors who were able to retake the vessel. It led to an unprecedented statement of gratitude by North Korean media.
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South Koreans have grown 3 inches taller than their North Koreans counterparts. They are genetically the same and have been living similar lives till divide in the last century. The nutritional difference of only 50/60 years has caused this difference.
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A North Korean defector who escaped to China, returned to see his family, then escaped again to Thailand, went to Argentina, then trekked through South and Central America to sneak into the US through Mexico. He is now a US citizen.
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A North Korean teen who was chosen to go to the International Mathematical Olympiad used it to escape North Korea and start a new life.
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There is little evidence that Kim Jong-il and the North Korean media ever claimed that he made any kind of improbable golf score. Even North Korean officials say it is an urban myth.
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The extent of North Koreas personality cult is such that in 2012 a 14-year-old North Korean schoolgirl drowned while attempting to rescue portraits of the two "supreme leaders" from a flood.
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North Koreans can be sentenced to "Three Generations of Punishment", meaning you and three generations of your family would be imprisoned
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It is mandatory for all North Koreans to vote, even though there is only one candidate for each office on the ballot
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Four South Korean woodcutters stumbled across the camp of a group of North Korean commandos on a mission to assassinate the South Korean president. The commandos lectured them on the benefits of communism and spared their lives, but their mission failed as the woodcutters had alerted the police.
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After only 73 years of separation, the Korean language spoken in the North and South have diverged so that 45% of North Korean defectors have trouble understanding South Koreans and 1% can't understand South Koreans at all
North Koreans data charts
For your convenience take a look at North Koreans figures with stats and charts presented as graphic.
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You can easily fact check why north korean soldier escape by examining the linked well-known sources.
Dozens of North Korean "ghost ships", many containing corpses, have washed up on the Japanese coast in recent years.
In 1977, North Korean agents abducted a 13 year old Japanese girl while she was walking to school in Niigata, Japan. The agents then took the girl over to North Korea, was forced to teach infiltrator agents Japanese culture. She is still missing to this day - source
Kim Jong Il ordered the kidnap of South Korean filmmaker Shin Sang-ok and his wife to make movies for North Korea. They gained Kim's trust and allowed them to travel to Vienna, where they seeked asylum to US Embassy. Feared about their credibility, they secretly taped Kim's voice prior. - source
South Korean bootleggers made a plan to balloon drop Sony's "The Interview" to North Koreans, en masse. They had to cancel plans when North Korea learned of this and labeled such an action as "a declaration of war".
Sometime in 1981, President Ronald Reagan ordered an SR-71 to spy on a secret North Korean conference, not because there was anything to learn, but because the repeated sonic booms would interrupt the conference and there wasn't a weapon on earth which could shoot the craft down. - source
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US sailors captured by North Korea, were flipping the middle finger in photos to protest the propaganda on their treatment. The North Koreans for months photographed them without knowing the real meaning of the finger, while the sailors explained that the sign meant good luck in Hawaii.
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North Korean "researchers" have concluded that North Korea is the second happiest country behind China
North Korea filmed a movie in Japan in 1985, aimed at showing the oppression of Koreans in Japan. North Koreans, instead, drew the conclusion that Koreans were better off in Japan
Russia uses North Korean slaves in Siberian labor camps. Most slaves are unaware that they are no longer in Korea.
When a North Korean merchant vessel was attacked by Somali pirates, an American destroyer came to their aid. This event led to rare pro US statements from the North Korean media.
In 2014, South Korean Christians put up a Christmas tree visible from the North Korean Border. North Korea responded by calling it a "tool for psychological warfare" and threatened to bomb it.
North koreans infographics
Beautiful visual representation of North Koreans numbers and stats to get perspecive of the whole story.